The competition, like the Auto Windscreens Shield four years later that gave Blues another Wembley success, may be regarded as small beer.

But it was a champagne moment for Gayle and the club in front of 45,000 or so success-starved Blues fans.

His goals were stunning, and Bobby Charlton, no less, described them as the best two he had ever seen at the famous stadium.

“I was in an assembly the other day in Paignton,” smiled Gayle, who now works as a mentor in colleges and schools in Devon, “talking to year eight about various experiences and life.

“I’m not sure if they really knew that much about me, but a couple of the teachers were from Birmingham and still remember that day and were talking to me about it. It’s a different generation, football has changed so much. It was a long, long time ago and now Blues are back at Wembley, in the Carling Cup final, it’s amazing to think, when you look at the players they’ve got, that I was part of a bit of club history there.

“Being a local lad as well it meant so much and it was an amazing experience. It’s always going to be part of my jigsaw puzzle, it’s always going to be part of the club’s and the fan’s as well.”

The most vivid memory of the 3-2 defeat of Tranmere Rovers for Gayle was not his goals but pre-match.

He explained: “On the coach, coming up Wembley Way, it was an incredible sight. It was a sea of blue and white, Blues fans were packed everywhere.

“Back then you watched these scenes on television, and it would be Liverpool or Manchester United. But this was us, Blues, and I was thinking ‘is this for real?’.

“You drove straight to the tunnel, right by the dressing rooms, and when those big black doors were shut behind, you knew this was it, you had arrived – Wembley.”

It was Blues’ first visit since the 1956 FA Cup final, so it was no wonder the blue half of Birmingham turned out in force on that May afternoon.

Under Lou Macari, who had only been appointed in the February, Blues were a strong, fit and very effective unit.

But Gayle had had a rocky time of it since a £175,000 transfer from Wimbledon just before Christmas.

He was criticised by fans and the media and he admitted that at the time it affected him.

But after Wembley, he was accorded hero status.

Gayle, a Kings Heath printer who knocked about the local non-league scene, said: “On the day, it just clicked for everybody.

“It had been a very hard season. We had a change in manager, a change round in players and it had been difficult for me. I was being slaughtered.

“So winning the cup was like a reward for everything we had gone through and the work we had put in.”

Blues went 2-0 up against Tranmere, who had the Third Division play-off final a few days later on their minds (they beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0).

But they were no pushovers and pegged it back to 2-2 before Gayle, in the 84th minute, scored the winner with a spectacular overhead kick. Wayne Rooney, eat your heart out.

Gayle laughed: “I saw him talking about that goal against Manchester City afterwards and he was absolutely buzzing. I could fully understand why.

“Those are the sort of goals that don’t happen very often. Usually you try them and they end up in row Z.

“He connected with his sweetly and it went into the top corner. Mine was the same. It was just an instinctive thing and it came off.

“We got a free-kick. Ian Clarkson put it into the box and I knew Vince Overson was going to win the header.

‘‘I didn’t have any time to bring the ball down and turn so I just adjusted my body and made contact with it. As I said, it was just instinct – and it went over my shoulder and flew into the net.”

Gayle’s first, following on from Simon Sturridge’s opener, was just as spectacular.

Mark Yates played the ball into him and set off on the charge for a return pass. Gayle had other ideas.

“Studge closed somebody down and he miskicked it, we got the ball back in midfield and Yatesy shrugged off a challenge – it was that big backside of his – and went for a one-two.

“I knew the defender was close to me and I could have taken a touch and played it off, but I just thought I’d try to catch him out and let it go through my legs on the turn and run round.

‘‘Then there was only one thing on my mind.” There sure was: even though he was at a wide angle, Gayle unleashed a thunderbolt from inside the area that no goalkeeper would have kept out.

“After it got to 2-0 we tended to sit back and allowed them to come onto us another ten, 15 yards. But even then, after they equalised, I still felt we would go on and win it,” he said.

Overson walked up the 39 steps to the Royal Box and hoisted the trophy high, leaving the travelling hordes delirious – and Gayle established in club folkore.